Necro's game clears and mindless musings

[Mathius]

Renny Blaster is one I can't understand at all.  Yes, it looks pretty good but it plays Awful.  Does anyone want it for any reason other than "it's expensive"?

The Bad:  music tracks are short and loop too often - in the case of the ending credits, the track ends half way through and leaves you in silence

...that's absolutely hilarious.

Even the Duomazov Bros. didn't have too much good to say about it, though Runinruder tried his hardest if I remember correctly.

[KingDrool]

Alright Necro, get back to work!

[Necromancer]

I got a half dozen or so stockpiled.  I just need to type up my scribbled notes into something coherent.

[Necromancer]

Clear #92 - Private Eye Dol



A combo of digicomic and point and clicky adventure.  Tis cheap fun and one of the better polished games on the system.

The Good:  cool chip tunes that fit the environments well (my favorite was the cave song); tons of voice acting; lovely backgrounds and well animated cut scenes with lots of detail; nice big portraits of the people you talk to, but only if it's one on one - if it's in a group setting, the portraits are small and kinda bland; light hearted and humorous (get busted as a fake cop!); a few little puzzles to solve; sexy sunbathing and shower scenes; and the funny ending screen (see below).

The Bad:  it's inconsistent on when you see dialog portraits - sometimes they're there for the dialog and response selection screen and sometimes only for the dialog; it's also inconsistent with menus - sometimes it remembers the last picked option and sometimes it defaults back to the first option.  Both issues are minor things.

The Ugly:  overall it has very nice art, but the characters' eyes are often jacked up.


The ending screens shown above roughly translate as the publisher (Hunex) and developer (NEC Home Electronics), a screen saying it's over / don't you turn off the power?, a screen showing how to access the oomake and dev room goodies, and finally one saying this time it's really over.  Each stays up for quite a while before showing you the next "hidden" message.   

[Black Tiger]

Private Eyedoll is lots of fun while you're coasting smoothly and not stuck.

It also has some of the best 16-bit JRPG graphics.

[Necromancer]

Your screen shots are what convinced me to get a copy and play it.  It's so pretty.   

I agree about the language protection, especially the interrogation at the end.

[Black Tiger]

I got stuck for what felt the longest on the cruise ship. It was frustrating then and other times, because I was actually correct in what I thought needed to be done to progress, but it was too often hard to trigger events because of the language barrier.

Even though it felt like a long and at times challenging game, I think that it only took me a day and a half from start to finish. Playing on my JXD while on vacation.

[gex]

Private Eyedoll looks sexy

[Necromancer]

Clear #93 – Future Boy Conan



A fun platformer based on Hayao Miyazaki’s anime.

The Good:  jaunty tunes that turn hectic when things get serious; though not terribly colorful or filled with detail, the cut scenes are cute and plentiful; I don't like the mechanic (see below), but the sprite animation when you fall too far is awesome – Conan turns towards the screen and glares at you, clearly disgusted with how you've mistreated him; and there's a funny little dancing sprite animation if idle too long.

The Bad:  the blind jumps where you fall too far feel cheap and lead to death or unavoidable hits due to the stun delay; the unskippable cut scenes kinda kill the pacing; the platforming suffers from slippery controls; and the SNES-esque mosaic transitions are le dumb.

The Ugly:  the water parallax, ugh.  It looks okay where there's only a small strip, but it's rather bleh when covering a taller area.

[Black Tiger]

I had Conan for several years before finally giving it a try, because it looked like a budget production.

I was shocked by the quality of the overall presentation with talking heads, voice acting, as well as the gratuitous parallax, animation and special effects. The pixelart is polished with nice vibrant color and it really suits the source material.

My enjoyment of the game is still a little stifled by my decades old preconceived notions and instinct to not take it seriously, but it is definitely a fun game with good overall variety.

I really like the color cycling effects and don't remember any that didn't work out very well. But I haven't played through the game in a long time.

[Necromancer]

Clear #94 – Mysterious Song



The Good:  humorous (have you seen my pussy?); damn fine voice work, easily as good as or better than any other US game except maybe Ys; nicely colored and detailed battle backgrounds (which correspond to the overworld graphics, a nice touch), cut scenes, and town graphics; EX game (an extended version of the original game) and fillable bestiary and item lists for good replay value; unlockable bomberman style mini-game; and Tiger's sprite looks like Milhouse, and the cave demon looks like the cookie monster.   

The Bad:  the cutscenes are mostly static; the overworld doesn't look bad, exactly, but it's overly repetitive and “tiley”; status effects are too common and get annoying, but at least they're never really a threat; and the main game is rather short, but no biggie when the EX game awaits.

The Ugly:  NA

[Punch]

I don't know, this is a game that I never was able to enjoy. Dunno why but I can never play it for a significant amount of time.

[Mathius]

Private Eyedoll looks terrific in Black Tiger's screenies. There's some really good shading that almost rivals Anearth, but at the same time there's some rather bland tile-work mixed in with it all. Kinda strange that it's inconsistent.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Private Eyedoll looks terrific in Black Tiger's screenies. There's some really good shading that almost rivals Anearth, but at the same time there's some rather bland tile-work mixed in with it all. Kinda strange that it's inconsistent.

I know right? I literally ran the 'teh bay' and snagged a copy for $11 and it arrived TODAY!!  Arriba!! Gonna have to put it in the queue of roughly 24334 other import RPGs I've yet to play on PCE. lol   

[Mathius]

Private Eyedoll looks terrific in Black Tiger's screenies. There's some really good shading that almost rivals Anearth, but at the same time there's some rather bland tile-work mixed in with it all. Kinda strange that it's inconsistent.

I know right? I literally ran the 'teh bay' and snagged a copy for $11 and it arrived TODAY!!  Arriba!! Gonna have to put it in the queue of roughly 24334 other import RPGs I've yet to play on PCE. lol   

I'm gonna see if MGC has any quality copies in the vendor hall next month.....if I can remember to search for it.